Denton Live - History

Denton’s Historical Park

Ever-present Past – Budding park celebrates county’s history

Bill Marquis’ hands are like battered baseball mitts. His fingernails are packed with the grime of the morning’s work. Dirt and sweat fleck his T-shirt and cap, even his snow-white beard.

A Hero's Tribute

Firefighters Museum honors history of Denton's Bravest
By Taryn Walker
Denton Live July-Dec 2012

Sunlight floods in through the garage-style windows of Fire Station No. 1, hitting row upon row of shiny hose nozzles. It’s been almost a year since retired firefighter Blake McConnell was here at the museum he helped start. He stops to show off one of his most prized acquisitions – a firefighter’s breathing apparatus from the 1800s. Staring into the steel bars and cracked glass that make up the haunting face, he smiles, remembering how he found it on eBay. Originally from Australia, it is the museum’s oldest piece.

Western Heritage Gallery

WESTERN TREASURES: denton’s western heritage gallery gives new life to the old west.

alt The hum of machines surrounds George Blackwood as he stands over his band bender, making a cowboy’s spur. All around him – on the walls of the welding shop, above his desk – are pictures of his father.

Paranormal Activity

Who Haunts Denton's Downtown Square?
By: Daisy Silos
Denton Live Jan-June 2013

As the clock strikes 9, a group emerges from the shadows around Denton’s century-old courthouse and forms a circle around Shelly Tucker. The group whispers until Shelly points to a row of shop windows above the Square downtown. During the 1960s, people used to live above the shops, but tonight, the windows are dark. Shelly’s voice is quiet as she begins the tale of the woman who moved into a loft space facing the Courthouse-on-the-Square. The tourists around her lean in, eager to catch the story.